The New Dallas In-N-Out Is, For the Moment Anyway, Positively Serene

About 20 minutes ago, on my way into Observer HQ, I swung past the new In-N-Out Burger, which opened at 9 a.m. today at Caruth Haven and Central. I was expecting to see tents, miles of idling cars, lines of people snaking around the building, weird ladies crying into their burgers -- the whole deal.

But, no: It was downright quiet. There were seven or eight cars in the drive-thru line, one guy at the counter ordering and three or four tables of people eating.

"Not as busy as you expected," I said to one young associate, who looked really excited about his new paper hat.

He assured me that this is what they were planning for, even though there was an army of employees spread across the grounds with nothing to do. It will get crazy at lunch, he promised.

Still, you can tell people were caught off guard. One lady cruised up in her SUV, rolled down her window and looked stunned. "It's quiet," she told the gaggle of bored staffers.

I thought maybe she was going to cry, not because she's unusually attached to the Double-Double but because instead of sitting in a drive-thru line for three hours before grabbing a burger for lunch, she's going to show up at the office at 10:15 and have to explain that she's already downed a burger and shake for breakfast.